Ranma's Disgaea: Hour of Chaos
by Crescent Pulsar
Summary: The Tendo's visit to the family grave makes Ranma wonder about his mother. Surprisingly, it's Happosai who can introduce him to her. That couldn't be a good sign, could it?
1. Preface & Prologue

**Preface**

I had some ideas for a Disgaea game, but since I didn't expect anyone of importance from Nippon Ichi to take the time to read anything from me (much less use it), I decided to just go ahead and incorporate them into a story instead of letting them go to waste. Well, they may be trash to begin with, but still.

This story is the first of a planned trilogy. It's mostly to establish the premise and set the stage for future events, so don't expect anything epic. At this stage, the series involved will be Ranma 1/2, Disgaea (in general) and Sailor Moon, but there will be more in the second and third stories.

Considering what Ranma will become, I feel it necessary to make the following clear from the outset: this story _will not_ have adult content. Aside from personal preference, and out of consideration for the nature of the series involved (which do not have adult content), Ranma's already been down the adult path more often than not in this regard. So, yeah.

On a related note, if one worries about such words as "locked" and "forever," especially together, I would like to think that such concerns will be unfounded. For anyone who's familiar with a certain aspect of the Disgaea series, the answer as to why that would be the case should be obvious. Otherwise, if the main issue is caused by Ranma being a girl throughout a story regardless: I think I've given a fair enough warning.

**Prologue**

As Ranma walked along a fence that overlooked a canal, he thought back on what had happened earlier, when he and his father had accompanied the Tendo family to visit the grave of Sonomi, their wife and mother. Inevitably, the subject of said person had been brought up, which had led to a question about his own mother.

To him, the weird part about what had happened wasn't the fact that he couldn't remember his mother, much less whether she lived or not: but that his father had tried to claim that he had given birth to him himself. He didn't know the reason for why he had been evasive about it, but he figured that his mother had to be some kind of weirdo for her to marry someone like his father, anyway.

And did it really matter whether he had a mother or not? It's not like he'd ever thought about it seriously before, so what difference would it make? Even if he had little in the way of good things to say about his father, he'd gotten along just fine without a mother. He'd be lying to himself if he said that he wasn't curious about what it would be like to have one, but he could otherwise live without knowing.

He was brought out of his thoughts by an irregularity beneath his feet. Realizing that the section of fence that he was walking across was unstable, he jumped off of it before it broke away and fell into the canal below. Unfortunately, his relief was short-lived because the section of the fence that he had escaped to had broken away as soon as he had landed on it, which sent him into the water of the canal anyway.

Now wet and female, her mood soured. She sat in the water for a moment, cursing her luck, before she got up and jumped out of the canal. As she shook the water out of her hair, she wondered if she'd ever get rid of her curse. Aside from the inconvenience of when and where she changed sex, there was another, more serious reason for why she didn't want to live with her curse for any length of time that was longer than necessary — and it had nothing to do with simply _being_ a girl.

As she wrung out the bottom half of her shirt, she noticed a middle-aged man out of the corner of her eye. He was pruning one of the shrubs along the walkway that led up to the front door of his house, but — instead of paying attention to what he was doing — he only had eyes for her body. To be more precise: he was staring at her chest, and how her soaked shirt conformed to its contours.

She wasn't disgusted by the act of ogling itself. Rather, it was because some part of her enjoyed the attention. And it always galled her how much more positive attention her female body attracted than her male body, which only seemed to attract girls who were violent, obsessive, domineering, self-centered, crazy, or a combination thereof. She was loath to admit it, but she preferred the perverted stares (and the occasional grope) of guys to the kind of attention that she tended to attract from girls when she was a guy.

The problem — as she saw it — was that she was finding it more difficult to pass up opportunities where she could take advantage of a guy while she was a girl. Guys might hit on her, sure, but at least it wasn't in the literal sense: guys didn't call her a pervert and assault her in various ways in order to chase her out of the men's side of _anything_ when she was a girl.

In addition to that, not only did she prefer female disguises, but on occasion she had more fun as a girl for one reason or another, to the point where she might decide to go to a festival as a girl instead of as a guy. And if that wasn't bad enough, she had to put some effort into preventing herself from doing any of those things nowadays, instead of it being a non-issue.

She didn't know if it was the food and gifts that she got for little or nothing, the sense of empowerment, being able to take advantage of guys who took it easy when they fought girls (if they fought back at all), or simply the attention and admiration: she feared that there might come a time when she wouldn't be able to help wanting to be a girl around guys, regardless of reason or excuse. In particular, she was afraid that she might come to like guys in _that_ way.

Not that she would ever admit that to anyone; as it was, she didn't even like to think about it. She might like having her ego stroked (in whatever form it came in), but romance and sex with guys — as a girl — was out of the question. (Which had nothing to do with the fact that she wasn't even ready for romance and sex as a man.) But that was beyond the point: she was a man, and a man didn't like other men romantically or sexually. Well, they could, and some did, but... just not _her_!

"Stupid curse," she muttered, before she picked up her wet shoes and began to make her way home.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

When Ranma made it through the front door, she barely had enough time to announce her arrival before she was picked up by her father, who began to carry her back the way she had come. She didn't know why he was in such a hurry to leave the house, or why he needed to include her, but the backpack he wore told her that he wanted to stay away in addition to getting away.

"Let's go, Ranma," Genma said. "We're going on a trip."

"Huh?" Came Ranma's intelligent reply, before she became irritated at her father's unenlightening words. "What!? Why!?" And more importantly, "_Where_!?"

Rather than answer her questions, Genma continued to focus on his goal. "We don't have a moment to spare!"

Before he could reach the gate that promised freedom, his friend, Tendo Soun, suddenly stepped on the back of one of his zori. The sudden arrest of movement caused him to fall face-first toward the ground, which — as a result — meant that Ranma would be taken down with him. Since the upper half of her body had been held in front of him, she joined him in greeting the pavement with her face.

"Hold it right there, Genma," Soun said, who sounded a bit angry. "Surely not even _you_ are callous enough to leave without an explanation."

With a grunt of effort, Ranma was able to raise her head despite the weight of her father's shoulder. "What's going on?"

Soun took out a length of rope and pulled Genma off of her. "I'll explain in a moment. Could you help me tie him up before he comes to his senses?"

Ranma was more than happy to oblige, and soon they had her father trussed up and at their mercy inside of the living room. There she found Akane and Kasumi sitting at one side of the chabudai, with Nabiki standing behind them. They had been talking about something until they had seen her arrival.

Kasumi clapped her hands together and happily said, "Isn't it wonderful, Ranma?"

"What is?" Ranma replied, who still had no idea about what was going on.

Before anyone could answer, Genma became cognizant again and began to protest against his bondage quite loudly. "No! Let me go-oooo!"

After his outburst, Akane took the opportunity to ask Ranma a pertinent question. "You mean... You don't know?"

Ranma, who was beginning to lose her patience, turned to face Akane and asked, "Know _what_?"

"Nothing!" Genma desperately interjected. "Just run away! Quick, before the master returns!"

Ranma looked both disappointed and exasperated upon hearing the last part of what her father had said. "Is _that_ what this is about? What's the old goat up to _this_ time?"

Soun, who sat beside his friend, tried to explain. "Actually—"

"Ranma," Genma said, as he stared at the person in question with a solemn expression on his face, "if there was ever a time to trust your father, _now_ is that time. If you're still here when the master gets back, you'll regret it for the rest of your life."

The three Tendo sisters exchanged wondering glances, because they were confused by what he meant due to what they knew about the situation. Soun himself, who also knew what was going on, looked dumbfounded. Ranma, on the other hand, who knew nothing about the matter, simply became annoyed and planted her foot into the side of her father's face.

"Pop," she said levelly, "you do know that hearing that come from _you_ is even more reason to _not_ trust you, right?"

Genma closed his eyes and seemed grief-stricken by her words. "Oh, to be treated like this by one's own child. I guess I have no choice..."

Ranma yelped in pain when her father sank his teeth into her foot. With unshed tears in her eyes, she glared at him and growled out, "Why, you—!"

A dust cloud was kicked up as she tried to stomp her father into the floor over and over again. Unfortunately, he used the cloud of dust to screen his escape from both the attack and the ropes that had bound him. So it was too late when she noticed him rising up behind her, poised to strike at the back of her neck with his index and ring fingers extended. As his attack descended upon her, he yelled, "You'll thank me for this later, boy!"

However, before he could land his blow, something landed on his head and drove his face into the floor, rendering him unconscious in the process. Ranma was already in the process of turning around to defend herself, and the first thing that she saw was a far cry from the help that she had hoped to find, even if it was only marginally better than being knocked out by her father (thus waking up wherever his whims would have taken her).

"Ranma-chan!" Happosai joyfully cried out as he leapt toward her bosom, with his short arms outstretched and the little, gnarled fingers of his hands reaching out with perverted intent.

With an annoyed expression on her face, Ranma simply plowed her fist into Happosai's gleeful visage. He fell back and landed on Genma's posterior, seemingly uninjured, and looked up at her with evident indignation. "Is that any way to show gratitude for what I'm trying to do for you!?"

"As if I want your help with something like _that_!" Ranma angrily shot back.

Happosai actually looked surprised by her response. "You mean... You _don't_ want to see your mother?"

Hearing that brought Ranma up short. "Wha...?" She felt rather dumbfounded as she looked about the room, to read the others' faces. "What do you mean?"

Soun coughed behind his fist. "As I was trying to tell you before... When asked, I told the master where we had gone this morning."

"I'm ashamed to have never asked about it," Happosai said with a sigh, and a wistful look on his face. By this time he was sitting cross-legged and had his pipe lit, seemingly unmindful of just where he had elected to sit. "As much as I thought Sonomi-chan was a bad influence on you as a martial artist, she was a wonderful girl... I couldn't muster the will to come between you two."

Akane shared a look with her sisters, as they had not known their mother well enough to imagine the kind of effect that she would have had on the old pervert. While it was true that he respected Kasumi enough to not do anything inappropriate to her, it was different for his feelings on such a matter to be put into words.

"And for that I am eternally grateful, master," came Soun's solemn reply, before he returned his attention to a nonplussed Ranma. "As it happened, your father's behavior was brought up, and the master told us that he would be willing to contact your mother, seeing as she will be my daughters' future mother-in-law."

Akane stood up and went to stand next to Ranma, the expression on her face a mild mixture of excitement and encouragement. "Isn't it great?"

Ranma looked down, and had a pensive look on her face. "Is it...? It's all so... sudden. I mean... I don't remember her _at all_..."

"But she's _your mother_," Akane tried to reason with her, as if the person that she was speaking to was supposed to understand what she meant.

While Ranma didn't really see any real harm in meeting her mother, she didn't completely understand anyone's enthusiasm for the idea, or know how she was supposed to feel about it. Everyone around her may have had at least some idea of what it would be like to have a mother, but she didn't. Sure, she'd seen mothers interacting with their children before, but she'd had no personal experience of her own for a reference, and had thus felt little more than curiosity about it. It wasn't like her training had left much room for exploring other things, which is why any kind of relationship she'd ever had with anyone (her father aside) had never been more than a temporary arrangement.

And there was still the fact that her mother was the kind of woman who had been interested in a man like her father, and as far as she knew her mother could have allowed said father to leave with her for more than a decade without ever going back home to visit. She knew enough about mothers to know that that last part was hardly what anyone would consider normal behavior. At best she could only suppose that their relationship might not have lasted very long, if her mother hadn't known her father's true nature until after the fact...

In the end, all that she could do was sigh and resign herself to whatever was probably going to happen anyway, regardless of what she wanted (even if she knew what she wanted, which she didn't). "Alright..." She finally acquiesced, before she turned her attention to Happosai. "When can I meet her?"

Happosai looked up thoughtfully. "Hmmmm... If I had to guess, I'd say that she could be here within moments of being contacted. She had given me a special way of contacting her; that's what I'd been looking for before I got back."

Before anyone could ask what he had been looking for, he pulled it out of his top and made sure that everyone else could see it. Of those present, only Nabiki had any real idea of what it could be upon first glance, but she wasn't quite sure because she'd never seen any of its particular kind before. She walked over to Happosai so she could get a closer look at it.

"Wow," she voiced her opinion, once she got a closer look. She then held out her hand and made a gesture toward Happosai, who obliged by setting the object onto it. She peered at it closely as she turned it this way and that, before discovering how a thin part of it flipped open. "I didn't know that they made cell phones this small."

And that's what she guessed it was, even though the style and some of the features (including the language) were so different from the kind that she knew of. It also lacked an antenna of any noticeable size. Beyond that, its primary color was black while the secondary color was a hot pink. It had no corners to speak of, and when the flip was closed its size was no bigger than the palm of her hand. It was virtually weightless, which said a lot more about how high-end it would be for a cell phone. Well, assuming that it was one, because it appeared to be far too advanced for it to even be an up-and-coming model.

"Maybe," she thought to herself, "Ranma's mother is loaded, or is a part of one of those secret government agencies that you read about in fictional stories, and has access to things that the average person doesn't."

That seemed a bit far-fetched, so she doubted those ideas, but that didn't excuse the existence of what she held in her hand. She supposed that she might get a better idea of what to think about it once she saw it in action.

"How does it work?" She posed to Happosai.

Happosai closed his eyes and began to show signs that he was struggling to remember something. "It was really simple... Um..."

Ranma snorted. "Not to you, apparently."

"It was a long time ago!" Happosai snapped back defensively. "You weren't even a day old when she gave it to me and explained how it worked!"

Nabiki regarded him with a very skeptical look. "If this is a cell phone, there's no way it can be as old as Ranma. I'm even doubting the possibility that it's new."

Happosai waved her criticism aside, then spared a moment to draw from his pipe and exhale a cloud of smoke. "I couldn't tell you what a store-bought cell phone is supposed to be like. But if you were to meet Ranma's mother, what you hold there in your hand wouldn't seem strange at all."

That certainly intrigued everyone present, even though many of them didn't find anything strange about the wording that had been used. Perhaps due to his past experiences with his master, Soun — out of concern — was the first to respond. "What do you mean, master?"

Happosai grinned at him. "You'll see."

The expression on Soun's face said that he was no longer interested, and that he would rather find a place to hide than stick around to discover what his master was up to. He was afraid of what kind of connection he had with his friend's wife, especially since said friend had never elected to tell him anything about her, much less invite him to the wedding. Perhaps there was something to his friend wanting to avoid his wife, after all...

If so, then he figured that it would be prudent to make sure that his daughters didn't come into contact with her until he was sure that it would be safe. So he cleared his throat and tried to sound and act composed when he addressed his daughters. "Girls, why don't we allow Ranma to have some time alone with his mother whenever she happens to get here. It's probably been a while since the last time they've seen each other."

"To be more precise," Happosai interjected matter-of-factly, "the boy hasn't seen his mother since the day he was born."

Everyone was surprised to hear that, to one degree or another. It made Soun wonder even more about his friend and his wife, while his eldest and youngest daughters were both understanding and disappointed in regard to his request, even as they sympathized with Ranma. However, unlike them, Nabiki's shrewd mind was more busy trying to figure out what was going on. Between Genma's behavior, Happosai's words and the supposed cell phone, there seemed to be something interesting yet suspicious about the whole thing, with Ranma's mother being at the heart of it all.

As for Ranma, she wasn't quite sure what to think, in regard to what Happosai had said. She had assumed that she had left her mother at a young enough age to forget about her completely, but to realize that she hadn't had a chance to make _any_ memories of her _at all_ was just... dumbfounding. It made her wonder if her father was even married to her mother, and whether he had made some sort of deal with her for the sole purpose of bearing a child that he could raise and train in the martial arts on his own. She could hardly put it past him to do something like that, though it still left her wondering how to feel about it since that sort of thing was rather typical of her father.

Happosai broke the silence that he had inspired by holding his hand up toward Nabiki and saying, "Anyway, could I have that back, my dear? The sooner I figure out how it works, the sooner that Ranma will be able to meet his mother."

After Nabiki gave the cell phone back to him, he leapt off of Genma and began to make his way toward the dojo. With a final glance at everyone else, and an encouraging gesture from Akane, Ranma soon followed after him, her mind awhirl with what to expect and what kind of mother she should hope for. She was so distracted by her thoughts that she almost forgot how her mother would be expecting a son, and that she would need to make a detour for some hot water to remedy that.

* * *

While Happosai was hunched over the cell phone, as he tried to figure it out, Ranma paced about the dojo in a state of agitation. Now that it looked as if it were going to happen, meeting his mother had become more significant to him, which — in turn — made him worry about a wide variety of things. Would she like him? Would he like her? Was his current outfit okay? Was the dojo a good place to meet, or should they meet her somewhere else? She wasn't some kind of weirdo, was she?

Happosai threw up his hands and yelled, "How can I concentrate with you walking around me like some kind of vulture!?"

Ranma paused in mid-step and had the decency to look embarrassed. He opted to sit down across from Happosai and watch him as he fiddled with the device that would allow them to contact his mother, but it didn't take long for him to grow bored of that, or of hearing the old pervert mumbling to himself on occasion.

"Have you figured it out, yet?" He asked, sounding a bit impatient.

A bomb was thrown at him for his trouble, and he had enough time to give it a dirty look before rolling out of the way to escape the explosion that followed a second later. "What was that for!?"

"I'm trying to concentrate!" Happosai replied angrily. "And if you _must_ know: I've got it turned on, alright?"

Ranma looked unimpressed. "That's it?"

Happosai glared at him. "What do you mean, 'that's it?'"

Ranma crossed his arms imperiously. "How hard could it be to turn something like that on?"

"Fine!" Happosai growled, before he tossed the cell phone to Ranma. "Let's see _you_ do better!"

Ranma caught the cell phone easily enough, though he took his time in starting his own examination, wholly expecting to do no better than Happosai and getting called on it. However, much to his surprise, he found that he could understand the language used on it, which made him pause.

Taking his hesitancy to mean something else, Happosai smirked and decided to goad him. "Well? Not so easy, is it?"

Feeling irked by that, Ranma forgot his surprise in light of wanting the satisfaction that he'd get for showing Happosai up. So he looked for the power button, found it on the side, and pointed it out to the old pervert with a smirk of his own. "This is the power button."

Happosai crossed his arms indignantly and turned his head away. "Lucky guess!"

Since he wasn't about to be deterred by Happosai's childish dismissal, Ranma turned to the video display on the cell phone. After he figured out how to navigate through the menu, he began to look through it in the hope of finding something promising. It wasn't long before he looked in the "contacts" section, where he found a single name and number listed.

He looked up at Happosai and asked, "Is this 'Nyx' person the one you want to call?"

Happosai was stunned to hear that name being used by someone who shouldn't have known it. Then it occurred to him that the name might be shown somewhere on the cell phone, and that Ranma must have been able to read it.

"Yes..." He answered after a moment. "So you understand the language?"

Being reminded of it made Ranma pause mentally, and the surprise he'd felt before became confusion as he rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah... Though I don't know how. I don't remember learning it, much less seeing it before."

Happosai tried to wave away whatever concern the boy may have had with his hand. "I wouldn't worry about it. You'll figure it out once you meet your mother. Speaking of which," he reached his hand out for the cell phone, "ring her up so I can speak with her."

After he did what Happosai had instructed him to do, Ranma wondered to himself, "Is that my mother's name? Nyx? What kind of name is _that_?"

He watched as Happosai held the cell phone up to his ear for a few seconds, before perking up happily and moving it closer to his mouth to speak, as only someone who was inexperienced with cell phones might do. "It's me, Happosai! Remember me?"

Happosai appeared to be slightly offended by whatever response he'd received, but it could have been an act as far as Ranma could tell. "_Of course_ I'm still alive! I'm an _exceptional_ human, remember? Exceptional!"

"Anyway," Happosai said, after another break on his end of the conversation, "the kid wants to meet you." He paused as he received an answer, and Ranma didn't have a good feeling about what he was talking about when the old pervert looked over at him with a grin and said, "He has _no_ idea."

After making a few guttural hums of agreement during the moment that followed, Happosai finally said, "Great! See you soon!"

He proceeded to place the cell phone on the floor and walked away from it, toward the dojo's only other occupant, and he looked rather excited as he rubbed his hands together. The latter, of course, made Ranma wonder if seeing his mother was such a good idea. Between Happosai's excitement regarding his mother's apparently impending visit, and what he had said with that grin before, he was beginning to have second thoughts. What if his mother got along with the old pervert, and she herself was some kind of pervert?

He couldn't bear thinking about it, so he turned his attention to the cell phone instead. He found it a bit odd to just leave it on the floor without turning it off, so he pointed at it and asked, "What's up with that?"

Happosai turned to look at what he had been referring to. "Oh, that? Your mother's going to use its signal as a beacon, so she can teleport directly to our location."

"Ah, I see," Ranma answered calmly, and with a seemingly knowing nod of the head. Then he grabbed Happosai by the collar, lifted him up to his now-scowling face in one swift, violent motion, and yelled, "As if I'm going to believe that! Just what kind of mother _teleports_, anyway!?"

As if in answer to his question, a ball of bright, pink energy appeared in the air, a short distance from the cell phone. They both turned to look at it, and watched as it extended vertically in both directions, until it was around two meters tall and almost touching the floor. It split down the middle after that, remaining connected at each end, and expanded outward until it took on the shape of a heart. Then, suddenly, a circle was drawn around it, and a bunch of symbols appeared within it but not the heart, where instead a coruscating, fuchsia-colored vortex appeared.

What stepped out of the vortex was so shocking to Ranma that he didn't even notice when he released his grip on Happosai and dropped him. He wanted to deny what he was seeing, but the familial resemblance wouldn't allow him to go that far; especially since he looked a lot less like his father than he did the creature before him.

"Mom...?" He found himself saying in disbelief.

* * *

Chabudai: a short-legged table often employed in the family/living room, used for various things and occasions (which usually includes meals).


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Ranma could hardly believe his eyes, and it wasn't due to the fact that the red-haired and blue-eyed woman that now stood before him looked like a mature and extraordinarily more sexy version of his female self; that wasn't it, at all. Rather, the most prominent — though not entire — reasons for his disbelief were caused by her long and pointed ears, bat-like wings, spade-tipped tail, and the two large horns that protruded from the sides of her head.

Of course, it didn't help that she was dressed in rather abbreviated business attire, as if she'd just stepped out of a corporate office that may or may not have been on a set that filmed adult movies. And the way that she moved was simply hypnotic, even while standing in place; yet it was also so provocative that he would have been surprised by his lack of nose-induced anemia if everything about her hadn't arrested his attention so completely. As things stood, he wasn't even aware that his mouth was wide open.

Ranma was brought out of his daze when Happosai leapt toward his supposed mother with wide-open arms. "Nyx-chan! It's so good to see you again!"

With a stolid expression on her face, Nyx casually used the end of her tail to swat Happosai to the floor. "Why do you even bother?"

"It's your fault for being so irresistible!" Happosai mockingly accused, as he got up and rubbed his abused cranium.

Ranma was tempted to agree with him, whether he was joking about it or not. Not only did Nyx look, dress and move in ways that were meant to send young men like himself into a lustful frenzy, but her voice and intonation were practically asking for it, too. Idly, he wondered why he wasn't being affected by the display as he had just imagined others would likely be.

Then he noticed that her white-pupiled gaze had returned to him, eyeing him appraisingly. He didn't know what to say, so he didn't say anything. While he assumed that the she-demon before him was in all likelihood his mother, he wasn't exactly keen on having that idea acknowledged. What kind of good, upstanding human being would want to admit to having any kind of relationship with a demon? It was his sort that had to deal with them when they started causing trouble, after all.

Having apparently seen all that she had been looking for, Nyx smiled slightly and said, "Well, it appears that you have turned out rather well — for a human."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ranma found himself saying in defense of his human pride, his brow furrowed.

"What I mean, _son_," Nyx replied, who smiled with amusement when said son winced at the familiar term, "is that you were born with the purpose of having great potential as a fighter." Her smile developed into a frown. "Admittedly, succubi aren't ideal for bolstering the traits of _males_, but _someone_ insisted."

Happosai crossed his arms and snorted. "As if I was going to summon _anything else_ after the lifetime it took me to get what I needed to summon _you_. Besides," he looked at the succubus pointedly, "apparently you're the most powerful succubus, so that has to count for _something_."

Nyx smiled wryly, which caused one of her canines to reveal itself and press into her bottom lip. "I suppose it does."

"Anyway," she continued, sweeping some of her long, unbound hair out of her face as she returned her attention to her son, "I don't expect you to accept me for who or what I am. But, if you're worried about being or becoming a demon, then don't be: succubi are a female-only species."

Seeing her child look away and fidget in a conspicuous manner, she couldn't help being intrigued by his response. Instead of denouncing her as being his mother, or doing what a human might typically be expected to do while in the presence of a demon, he had begun to act as if he had something to hide. Of course, being as long-lived and experienced as she was, she was able to discern what had likely inspired such a reaction.

And so, having sensed something fun and interesting afoot, her attitude and visage turned mischievous. "What's _this_? Are you actually _worried_?" When she got an emphatic shake of the head in response, her tail began to sway more animatedly in delight. "My, my. Does that mean what I think it means?"

Before Ranma had a chance to respond, he had to leap back so as to avoid being hit by a pail full of cold water. When he landed, he looked in the direction that the attack had come from and saw Happosai with an insufferable grin on his face, along with another pail of cold water.

His eyes narrowed threateningly. "Just what do you think you're trying to pull, old man?"

"Who, me?" Happosai replied, playing innocent. "Why, I was only going to show your mother how much you two have in common. Is that such a bad thing?"

Ranma continued to glare at him until he noticed the dewy-eyed stare being directed at him by his mother, who had her clasped hands tucked beneath her chin like an expectant child. The effect was ruined — of course — by the not-so-innocent increase of cleavage caused by the position of her arms, as they squeezed her prodigious breasts together.

"No way," he put his foot down, as he looked between his mother and the old pervert guardedly. "I know what you're up to. I can accept my mother being a demon, but I _am not_ becoming one. It ain't happening."

Nyx regarded him with a sly look. "Are you saying, then, that you can become female?"

Ranma froze in surprise upon being found out, as his hindsight showed him how easily he had been tricked into giving the game away. That gave Happosai the opening that he needed to hit him with the second pail of cold water, with said pail striking his head first before emptying its contents. Angry at the injustice of it all, she lashed out at the one responsible for it with a cry of outrage. The action resulted in her momentum being redirected with the deft use of a smoking pipe, which sent her flying across the dojo and back-first into her mother, who had no trouble catching her.

Finding herself in her mother's arms, it was with some hesitation that she looked up, to find her mother looking down at her with a playful smile. She wasn't sure what to make of it, in part because — in a number of ways — the person that the smile belonged to was different, to the extent that she wasn't sure how to handle the situation. She tended to give people the benefit of the doubt, and she hadn't yet established her first-impression, so she decided to see what would happen while she pretended to be at her mother's mercy.

"You know," Nyx said, as if trying not to laugh, "no one ever said anything about you becoming a demon. If you must know, I could care less."

Ranma looked at her suspiciously. "Really?"

"Really," Nyx replied in all seriousness, as she released her son-turned-daughter and gave her a chance to turn around and face her. "There were two reasons for why I agreed to have you, and one of them was that you be a human."

"What was the other?" Ranma found herself asking despite herself, even as she puzzled over the first reason and tried to figure it out.

"He," Nyx pointed at Happosai, who now stood nearby, "signed himself over to me. He will be working for me as a combat instructor after he dies, rather than ending up who knows where at the whim of the local system in the afterlife."

"There's bound to be a bunch of pretty ladies around if you're the strongest of the succubi!" Happosai reasoned excitedly.

Nyx gave her child a conspiratorial wink — with an eye that Happosai couldn't see from his vantage point — and said, "Oh, you can _bet_ on that."

Ranma couldn't stop a slight smile from forming in response to that. Even if he wasn't sure where he stood with his mother, it was nice to know that she wasn't exactly friends with Happosai. It would serve the old pervert right if he ended up being surrounded by a bunch of guys, instead of what he expected.

"Now," Nyx said, as she clapped her hands together, "let's say we get to know each other properly, hm?"

When her hands had come together, two plush zabutons had appeared out of thin air — with a popping sound and a brief display of smoke — before gravity pulled them down to the floor. At the same time, her outfit had become a more modest and comfortable yukata in the same fashion, with the smoke lasting long enough to obscure her nudity in the exchange.

As she settled onto one of the zabutons, she regarded Happosai with a look and said, "Be a dear and give us some privacy."

Happosai did so without complaint, though he was obviously disappointed. While Ranma took a seat on the zabuton that was a short distance across from her mother, he took his time walking to the exit. When he got there, he found the door slightly ajar, opened just enough for someone to spy through. Upon sliding the door open, Nabiki — no longer being supported by the door — fell across the threshold, asleep despite hitting the floor face-first.

"What's Nabiki-chan doing here?" Happosai wondered aloud.

Ranma didn't have to wonder, since she had a good idea as to why Nabiki was present, along with a suspicion that would explain why she was asleep instead of spying. She was a little surprised that she hadn't sensed her before, though she supposed that her preoccupation with the phone and the imminent arrival of her mother had been sufficient distractions.

"Oh, her?" Came Nyx's nonchalant response. "Since she didn't appear to be invited, I decided to give her some... _interesting_ dreams." Seeing her child's worried expression, for her benefit she added, "Nothing harmful, I assure you."

Happosai shrugged his shoulders and went about his way, though not before pilfering Nabiki's silky darlings and holding them above his head in triumph like a certain green-clad video game character. Ranma shook her head at the display and returned her full attention to her mother.

"I hadn't counted on having this discussion," Nyx began, with a mildly bemused expression on her face. "Humans don't tend to be all that... reasonable toward demons, nevermind those claiming to be one's progenitor."

Ranma nodded her head once in agreement before releasing a weary sigh. "Yeah, but this is pretty much par for the course for me." Then she smiled self-deprecatingly. "Besides, with a father like mine, who needs a demon?"

"I can't say that I'm surprised by that," Nyx replied with a light chuckle.

Ranma looked a bit uncomfortable and hesitant as she added, "To tell you the truth, I'm more surprised that you and him, well... _you know_..."

Nyx made a face in reaction to the suggestion being made. "Oh, child, _please_ dispel such an unpleasant thought. I _do_ have standards, you know."

"Wha...?" Ranma voiced, utterly confused. "But—"

"Parthenogenesis," Nyx interrupted. "Virgin birth; that's how you were conceived." Seeing the oncoming question from her still-confused child, she went on to explain, "Basically, you were created outside of the womb by giving form to energy. I took what genetic information I needed from your father to ensure that you were human and male, and the rest I contributed myself."

After a moment of thought Ranma slowly nodded her head once, expressing that she accepted the explanation more than she understood it.

"It's not something to be worried about," Nyx assured her. "You're still a perfectly-normal human being." Seeing the half-lidded stare that she got in response to that, she added, "All things considered."

"But enough about that," she continued, as she waved her hand in dismissal. "Let's get to know each other. Do you mind if I go first?"

She smiled when her child shook her head in the negative. Then she began to tell her a few things about herself, in the hope that her child would open up to her and do the same in return.

* * *

Ranma had parted with her mother in somewhat high spirits. Despite being a demon (and a succubus, at that), she was a lot more approachable than her father, and the way she expressed herself, joked and made double entendres was on a very friend-like level. She didn't find it all that hard seeing herself with her mother in the future, just hanging out and goofing off.

Unfortunately, her spirits were only "somewhat" high because said spirits were dampened by reality. To begin with, her mother was a demon, and that was likely to become a problem — for various reasons — if anyone else were to learn about it (especially the person that she hoped to marry, not to mention her family). And then there was the fact that they lived in two very different worlds, and that her mother supposedly had the run of her own.

That was another thing: she had found it rather hard to believe that her mother ruled an entire (nether)world. While she could readily accept that her mother could do better than her father in terms of social status, being the ruler of even a single nation would have been pushing it, to say the very least. And while her mother had offered to prove it, she didn't trust her enough to follow her to a place where demons lived. She'd only just met her, after all.

Still, her mother had seemed nice enough. She hadn't attacked her, acted like she had an ulterior motive (as far as she could tell), or had done anything that she would have expected a demon to do. She hadn't even pried very much into her life, after she had told her as much of it as she had been willing to share. And whatever she had done to Nabiki didn't seem to have had any lasting negative effects, either. In fact, not only hadn't she told anyone about her mother being a demon, but she also seemed to be avoiding her a bit, to the extent of it having a positive impact on her wallet.

However, there was one thing that had been left unresolved, that she had forgotten to get around to before her mother had left: why said mother had accepted the deal with Happosai on the condition that she be a human. She assumed that a demon would prefer having demonic offspring, after all. While she could call her up and ask about it using the cell phone that she had given her, she had yet to have the nerve to do so. Not only was she unsure of how to frame the question, but she also feared that it might touch upon something very personal.

In the end, meeting her mother had been yet another peculiar event in her life. And it had continued with Shampoo and the reversal jewel, and how much trouble her own stupidity had caused her. Then there had been the ghost who had wanted her old-fashioned underwear stolen, which was an event that she hoped to forget as soon as possible. And then Pantyhose Taro had tried to use cursed water to make Happosai a pious man, but had almost cursed him into becoming twins instead, before trying to become a twin himself so he could beat up everyone. After that, while on a training trip, she had washed up upon an island where a guy had girls stepping on the back of his head so he could identify the girl that he had fallen in love with, which just happened to be her. And while she couldn't remember much of what had happened in the following event (much to her relief), she'd been told by Akane that Ryoga had come across a fishing rod that made the people caught with it fall in love with the user, and that he had used it on her. Then Gosunkugi had bought some kind of high-tech (but cheap) body armor so he could have the power to beat her, but in the end it had self-destructed, blowing both of them up.

Then Herb had arrived, along with his two subordinates, Lime and Mint. Herb was a prince of the Musk dynasty, who had not only gotten himself cursed by the same spring as her, but had gotten said curse locked by the Chisuiton, a magic pail. He had come to Japan to see Cologne, in order to find the kettle — called the Kaisuifu — that would undo what the Chisuiton had done.

To make a long story short, he had angered her because of his mistreatment of Akane, which had led to a fight. She had lost, and after crashing into a pail of cold water and having her curse activated before his eyes, he had used the Chisuiton to lock it. Since she wasn't about to leave it at that, she had left to find the Kaisuifu before Herb. Ryoga and Mousse had decided to tag along, under the misconception that the Chisuiton would cure them.

The trip hadn't gone as planned because Mousse had lost their money, some of their supplies, and the map that showed the Kaisuifu's location. After encountering Herb at the ryokan that they had been working at, in order to earn what they would need to continue their journey, they had ended up following him to Mount Horai. Once there, Mousse and Ryoga had knocked her out, stole the Chisuiton from Lime and Mint, and then unwittingly locked their curses with it.

Unfortunately, even with the Chisuiton's ability to help her find the Kaisuifu, Herb had beaten her to it and had unlocked his curse by stepping into a waterfall that had been made hot by its magic. He wouldn't allow her to do the same without getting through him first, so she had to fight him once again. In the battle that ensued, she had urged Ryoga and Mousse after the Kaisuifu, since one of Herb's attacks had sent it rolling downhill with the kettle-shaped boulder that it had been attached to.

Now she was lying on the ground, fighting to stay conscious. Despite her best efforts, Herb had overcome everything that she'd thrown at him, including the hiryu shoten ha, and he didn't even look the worse for wear. Her own condition was such that — even if she managed to stand up — she highly doubted that she would be able to dodge his next attack, whatever it might be. And since he had already made it clear that he was going to fight to the death...

She imagined Akane crying, after finding out that she had been killed. Although she never would have admitted it, she loved Akane enough to know what she had to do. Even if she couldn't be a man, for her or for herself, she could accept returning as a girl if it meant that such sadness and pain could be averted. (Well, it was wishful thinking more than anything that made her envision Akane feeling that way if she died, but still.)

The problem was: how was she going to return? She wasn't in any condition to fight, much less have the energy to commit to any kind of action that would see her escape from Herb in one piece. Knowing that she was running out of time, she struggled to come up with something, anything.

"If I only had more energy..." She lamented to herself.

The thought made her realize that she could have it, if she was willing to make a sacrifice. The air was saturated with all of the energy that Herb had been throwing around during their fight... male energy. She recalled what her mother had said, just before she had left.

"While I don't expect you to ever want to become a demon," she had said, "things change, and it sounds like you lead a fairly dangerous life. For whatever reason, if the want or need arises, you need only absorb energy from a male to become a succubus."

Her mother had said more, explaining how she was technically a succubus while female already, and how that side of her ancestry needed to be awakened because succubi weren't normally derived from anything male. She hadn't become a succubus, to begin with, because that side of her was spiritual in nature rather than physical, and had remained so because the nature of the curse based its operation on the latter. Although she hadn't fully understood the hows and the whys of it, what mattered was that she understood enough to know what needed to be done.

It was with a fair amount of difficulty that she managed to pick herself up from the ground and stand unassisted, which had been made no easier with her attention being divided, as she tried to pull in the energy around her with her will and a bit of visualization. Whatever second thoughts that she may have had about it in the back of her mind had come too late, as she felt the energy beginning to flow into her, filling her with a sort of nervous yet titillating feeling that made her heart beat faster.

Herb showed some surprise that she was still conscious and willing to stand despite her apparent condition, but his expression soon changed to show that her unwillingness to give up was inconveniencing him, because he had grown tired of their fight. "Why don't you give up?"

Ranma, with her head lowered and face cast in shadow, chuckled humorlessly in reply. "Why do you think?"

Herb watched as she stood straighter, more poised, as if she were a lot fresher and less encumbered by injury than her appearance showed. But what really got his attention — and made him wary — was the feeling of strangeness that he sensed in the air; particularly when he noticed all of the energy around them being drawn toward — and into — the redhead that vexed him so.

Ranma raised her head, and her white-pupiled eyes bored into those belonging to the prince of the Musk with cold determination. "This isn't over, yet."

* * *

Ryokan: a traditional Japanese inn that usually has a communal bathing area.

Zabuton: a cushion used when sitting, typically on the floor.


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

While Herb wasn't particularly alarmed by the metamorphosis occurring before him, he was hardly in the mood to continue the fight any longer than necessary. Besides which, if Ranma wasn't allowed to complete her recovery and transformation, then he wouldn't have to find out if she were becoming a threat until it was too late. Considering how tenacious she had proven to be already, erring on the side of caution came quite easily to him.

"How tiresome," he muttered, before suddenly firing a powerful blast of ki in Ranma's direction. "It's time to end this!"

Even though she was now in a condition to dodge the oncoming attack, Ranma stood her ground. She was confident that she could now take such an attack from Herb without too much trouble, as opposed to before, but it was primarily to find out whether she could drain at least some of the energy out of the ki blast before it hit her. Also, since she already knew that she could draw in ambient or otherwise uncommitted energy, she thought it better to have the ki blast disperse against herself rather than be allowed to pass by, with the energy out of immediate reach once the ki blast lost its form.

There was another reason behind her choice of action, though she wouldn't be aware of it until after the fact: absorbing energy felt too good to pass up, what with it being too novel to resist. Not only did it feel exhilarating in every sense of the word, but it was accompanied by a soothing warmth, akin to what she would experience while soaking in a hot bath. The combination could be compared to a good workout, feeling ready for more rather than tired, her senses heightened yet curbed by a mild blanket of euphoria — only better.

However, before the ki blast could reach her, it was intercepted by a large boulder, which shattered upon impact. As the debri from it fell all around her, and she took in the energy from the ki blast by continuing to draw in what was around her, she turned her attention away from Herb so she could find the boulder's source.

What she found was Ryoga and Mousse making their way toward her, who were once again in their human forms. While she might have normally felt more relieved for them, even glad, such feelings were very much tempered by the sight of the Kaisuifu that Ryoga had in his possession. Had she left things up to chance, she may very well have been able to unlock her curse without any potential complications.

Well, it's not like she could have predicted such an outcome, and being a succubus might very well be restricted to her cursed form, but neither thought made her feel any better or confident about her situation. Succubi were gender-specific in nature, after all, so she feared that that would become an issue.

"Ranma!" Ryoga called out, as he held up the Kaisuifu. "Now it's your turn to become a... man... again...?"

Rather than throw the Kaisuifu to Ranma as he had planned, he came to a stop some distance away from the person that he had thought to be Ranma and stared at them with a confused look on his face. "Who are you?"

Ranma blinked her eyes, wondering what he could be talking about, when realization struck her. Ryoga was easily tricked by simple disguises, such as putting on a pair of glasses or a hat with a change of clothes, and she figured that her newly-grown horns and elongated ears — not to mention her new wings and tail — were changes that were sufficient enough to fool him. Since Mousse wasn't wearing his glasses, and didn't seem inclined to put them on, she now appeared to be a stranger to both of them.

Before she could come up with a reply, the ground began to shake beneath their feet even as the air was filled with a deep rumbling sound, which prompted Mousse to speak up in alarm. "Wh-what's going on!?"

"Is it an earthquake!?" Ryoga wondered aloud as he looked about himself.

Ranma noticed a long crack form in the ground nearby, and before long it opened up and became a sizeable fissure. The shaking and rumbling continued unabated, and the instability of the mountain made itself even more apparent when the walls of the newly-opened fissure continued to move, closing now instead of expanding even further.

"So, Ranma," Herb said in a casually smug tone, which drew her attention back to him even as his words caused Ryoga and Mousse to look at her questioningly, "your ridiculous efforts seem to have made me careless. Thanks to the power of my soaring dragon spirit, this mountain is about to collapse." His expression hardened, and his gaze locked onto Ryoga. "Before that happens, however, I intend to take back what's rightfully mine."

Ranma interposed herself between Herb and Ryoga, and smirked in a way that she hoped was insufferable to the former of the two's eyes. "I think it's only fair to have you fight me for it, wouldn't you say?"

Herb snorted at that, showing some irritation, but the one to speak next was Ryoga, who'd now had a good look at Ranma's wings and tail. "Ranma...?"

Before Ranma could respond, Mint and Lime came into view as they ran toward Ryoga and Mousse, and everyone directed their attention toward them when Mint angrily shouted, "_You_! Try to trick _us_, will you!?"

"Telling us we'd get to see _boobies_!" Lime added, who was just as upset about it as his companion.

After returning her gaze to Herb, Ranma firmly ordered, "Ryoga, Mousse, take the kettle and get off the mountain before it collapses." Expecting some amount of hesitation and/or inquiry, she added, "I'm trusting you to keep it safe until I'm done here."

Ryoga and Mousse exchanged glances before they nodded their heads in unison and proceeded to run away, but Herb wasn't of a mind to just let them go. However, the ki blast that he had fired at their backs had been intercepted by Ranma, who had punched through it from the side. The dragon prince silently watched as the remains of his attack gathered into tendrils of energy and flowed into the redhead, and for the first time he had to quell a growing sense of doubt regarding his ability to deal with her.

As the sight and sounds of Mint's and Lime's pursuit began to fade into the distance, Ranma turned to confront Herb with a stony expression on her face, ready for their final engagement. "Let's finish this."

Herb looked unimpressed, if not outright bored, though was nevertheless wary. "I've defeated your ultimate move. You have no more hands to play."

"Is that so?" Ranma replied, who was now smirking mischievously. "Well, you know how you couldn't fight at your full potential until you were male? It just so happens that I wasn't fighting at my full potential, either."

Herb frowned at that, but prepared to initiate the next round of combat regardless, by assuming a fighting stance. As long as he didn't use any attacks that projected ki, he figured that he wouldn't have much to worry about: after all, he was confident that he was the better (overall) fighter. So, when he saw Ranma reach up and grasp the collar of her shirt with both hands, as if in preparation to bare her breasts once again, he disregarded it because he didn't expect anything different to happen.

However, much to his surprise and confusion, the impact that her breasts had on him were very strong and rather different, to the point where it almost felt like a physical blow. Rather than taking his first step toward battle, he found himself rooted to the spot and slightly unsteady on his feet, feeling inexplicably warm in the face and anxious in the belly. His heart raced and his breathing was no longer calm and measured, even though he hadn't yet been active to the extent that would tax him in any significant way.

With her breasts still exposed, Ranma began to approach Herb in a casual yet sexy manner. "It's funny how things work out. At first you think you've got the advantage, but it turns out to be a weakness instead."

"What... What do you mean...?" Herb managed to ask, after he tried and failed to shake off the effect that Ranma was having on him. As things stood, he was having a hard enough time trying to keep himself from staring at her, with said staring not being limited to her exposed breasts.

Ranma soon stood before Herb, with barely an inch to spare between her chest and him, and proceeded to look up at him with an impudent smile. "Well, it just so happens that succubi prey on men. And, because you're related to dragons, your affinity with male energy makes you even more vulnerable to them than normal."

Between his pride, a poignant dislike for his position, and the unwelcome rise of fear, Herb was finally able to make his body listen to his commands properly. With a desire to do something about the smile on Ranma's face, his first order of business was to take advantage of their proximity. However, much to his shock and dismay, his fist was caught, seemingly without any trouble, and Ranma's smile only grew as a result.

Before he could do anything else, he was disoriented by a sudden bout of dizziness. He tried to pull away and attack with his free hand, as soon as he realized that his energy was being drained directly from his body, but he soon found his other fist captured as well. As he felt himself weaken further, to the point where he could no longer stand on his feet, for the first time he began to experience a real fear for his life.

When he had been drained nearly to unconsciousness, he felt the vice-like grip on his fists vanish, and without that "support" he soon found himself falling the rest of the way to the ground. He could do little more than move his eyes by then, and they focused on Ranma as she looked down at him with an impassive expression on her face.

"You know," Ranma said softly, to the point where her words were difficult for Herb to hear over the rumbling of the ground beneath his head, "I thought about killing you, considering all the things that you've done, and the fact that you even tried to kill _me_." Herb's eyes widened when she took out the Chisuiton, which — until then — he had completely forgotten about. "I'm especially unhappy about what I had to do in order to beat you, so I think that this is only fair."

After she finished speaking, she went over to a recently-formed fountain and filled the Chisuiton's pail with water. Upon her return, she procured water from the pail with the ladle and — without delay or ceremony — proceeded to douse Herb with it, which locked his — now her — curse once again.

Ranma was far from cruel, even though she appreciated the horror being expressed in Herb's eyes, so she added, "I can't really blame you for how you were raised, so I'll tell you what: once you've learned to respect females, seek me out and I'll be willing to unlock your curse."

When an outcropping of rock began to crumble nearby, and a boulder from it threatened to roll over a defenseless Herb, Ranma was prompted to spread out her wings in preparation for flight, and took one of the prince's hands.

"Anyway, let's get out of here."

* * *

Ryoga and Mousse had managed to escape the mountain before they became entrenched in battle with Lime and Mint once more, due to the latter's projectile attacks eventually slowing them down enough for Lime — who was the slower one of the two — to catch up with them. Since they were outmatched (not that they would have admitted it), Ryoga had tried to take the advantage with a full-powered shishi hokodan, but Lime and Mint had been able to use their experience with it before to avoid it. That had left trickery, in the form of pointing at non-existent boobs, but even idiots learn from their mistakes eventually, and the last time was still fresh in their minds (and had begun the chase in the first place).

Fortunately for them, the sight, sound and feel of a mountain crumbling so close by was very hard to ignore. After a moment of watching the spectacle, and wondering about the person that they had left behind, they both realized that their opponents' backs were turned to them as their attention continued to be held by the crumbling mountain. After sharing a look that confirmed what the other was thinking, they acted quickly and struck the two from behind, and for the second time that day they managed to render them unconscious by using such a tactic.

Hoping to avoid further trouble from them (at least any time soon), Mousse pulled out a length of chain from his voluminous sleeves and tied them up with it. Once he was done with that, he rejoined Ryoga and they both watched as the remains of the mountain began to settle into a giant pile of rubble. As they did, they both thought of the same question.

"Do you think he made it?" Mousse voiced said question.

Ryoga didn't answer immediately, as he struggled to figure out how he should feel about his rival. Not only had Ranma placed his cure after their own, despite being backstabbed for what they had thought would be a cure for their curses (which had — in fact — put them into the same boat), but he had trusted them with the Kaisuifu even though they each had something to gain from Ranma being unable to become a guy again.

Before he could formulate an answer, a familiar voice said, "As if I'd be done in by something like a falling mountain."

Ryoga and Mousse turned to face the source of the voice, and found Ranma casually standing behind them with a female Herb lying unconscious at her feet (who had lost consciousness during their flight from the mountain). The wings, tail and horns were gone, which made Ryoga wonder what had been up with such a disguise. Well, they were features reminiscent of a dragon, so he could imagine why they would have been used, considering what had been used against himself too many times to speak of...

When no answer was immediately forthcoming, Ranma crossed her arms and frowned. "What? Disappointed?"

"Ah, no," Ryoga responded awkwardly, before he was able to compose himself. "I just wasn't expecting to see you behind us."

Ranma shrugged her shoulders. "Well, you know me: full of surprises."

Ryoga rolled his eyes at that, before he took out the Kaisuifu and held it out to Ranma. "Anyway, you want this or not?"

Ranma accepted it without a word, who wasn't in any mood to tease him. She was more concerned about whether the Kaisuifu would still work on her, and the fear that it wouldn't pretty much killed whatever humor she would have normally expressed at such a time. After taking a deep, calming breath, she prepared herself for the worst and raised the kettle above her head.

As the hot, steaming water poured over Ranma's head, Mousse and Ryoga were the only ones surprised when it failed to produce the expected result. While foul play may have normally been the reason for why such a thing would happen, they had both felt indebted enough to Ranma (for the effort that she had put into saving them from living out the rest of their lives as animals) to not resort to trickery or backstabbing — again, that is.

"It didn't work?" Mousse spoke up, both surprised and baffled.

"But it worked for _us_..." Ryoga added as he stared at Ranma, feeling the same as Mousse did on the matter.

Ranma sighed and lowered the now-empty kettle to her side, with her shoulders slumping in the process. "I kinda figured that this would happen."

Ryoga blinked his eyes confusedly. "You did?"

Realizing that she had spoken aloud, Ranma laughed nervously and tried to cover for her mistake. "Er, yeah. Something... happened while you guys were gone."

"Something happened?" Ryoga echoed, his brow furrowed. "Like what?"

Since she didn't want anyone to know the truth (for the time being, at least), Ranma quickly thought of a way to avoid having to come up with an explanation. "Why should you care?" She turned her back on them and began to walk away. "Anyway, let's leave before someone sees us."

Mousse and Ryoga glanced at each other before they shrugged their shoulders and followed after her, leaving the three unconscious individuals from the Musk to fend for themselves. While they were curious about Ranma's situation, they didn't care to an extent that might be mistaken for concern.

Despite the exertions of recent hours, and having gone without sleep since yesterday morning, they traveled well into the evening, until they reached the nearest town. They still had some money left over from what they had earned while working at the ryokan, but they had opted to spend it on train tickets instead of on a night at a hotel, even though they had lost all of their food and camping supplies on the mountain. They didn't much care for the idea, which had left them just enough money for a few snacks, but they had decided that it would be better to deal with the inconvenience so they could be back in Tokyo within a day or two instead of finding a place to work and taking a week or two to earn more money than what they would need for the trip back.

Since it was below freezing outside, and they were no longer able to ignore the cold without something significant driving them forward, sleeping outside with nothing more than the clothing on their backs was out of the question. Unfortunately, since Mousse had prioritized keeping weapons on his person before they had begun their journey, and had left such things as sleeping bags, blankets and extra clothes to their backpacks, that made finding a suitable shelter a must.

While it wasn't much of an improvement over sleeping outside, they found access to a stairwell from the roof of a building and considered spending the night there. Once they were fairly certain that they wouldn't be disturbed by anyone during their stay, they settled in and tried to get some rest.

Sleep came quickly for Mousse and Ryoga, who had nothing else to worry about beyond the train ride home, but Ranma's mind was so preoccupied that she didn't even bother to close her eyes. Not only did she have to worry about her relationship with Akane, or of being a demon (and a succubus, of all things), but she also had to contend with the fact that she might be female for the rest of her life. Between that and wondering what to reveal or keep secret about herself and her situation, and to whom which would apply, sleep itself seemed like a dream.

Eventually, out of frustration, she got up from her resting place and went outside, hoping that the chill air would help take her mind off of her problems. What she ended up doing, however, was pace back and forth while her concerns continued to trouble her.

Once she grew tired of doing that, she sighed and leaned her back against the entrance of the stairwell. She proceeded to cross her arms (due more to the cold than anything else) and look up at the star-filled sky, feeling depressed and lost. While she wasn't the type to seek out help unless it couldn't be helped, there were times when she really needed it, and now was one of those times.

Unfortunately, up until recently she'd never had anyone to really confide in. Of those that she could now take into consideration, either they weren't close enough to her, or they were too closely connected to the subject matter and she didn't know them well enough to be sure how they would react to whatever she might want to say to them. If she told the wrong person the wrong thing, her attempt to avoid certain scenarios could very well blow up in her face.

When she considered trying to take her mind off of her problems by indulging in her ability to fly, it suddenly occurred to her that she might just have someone that she could turn to. While she had less experience with her mother than any of the other people that she had considered talking to, said mother wasn't going to be affected by her situation in the same way, and she didn't think that her mother would go out of her way to ruin her life. After all, her mother could have done that during her first visit, but had kept her ancestry secret, and had even favored her existence as a human instead of wanting her to become a demon.

Besides, she felt that it would be a good excuse to find out what kind of relationship they had as mother and child, or what it could become. If she was going to be stuck as a succubus, who better could she relate to? And depending on how things turned out, it would likely be more ideal to have someone like her mother to help her get acquainted with the demon world.

Upon coming to the decision to contact her mother, she took out the cell phone that had been left in her care and dialed her number. She wasn't sure if she would be available, since she didn't know what time it was where she was from, or what kind of schedule she had, but she figured that she would have to call to find out anyway.

The line picked up in the middle of the third ring, and she was a bit relieved when she heard her mother's greeting. Since she wasn't sure how to broach the subject that had inspired her call, and she hadn't planned on how to proceed, she decided to start the conversation as casually as she could.

"Hey, mom."

"Ah, Ranma," her mother answered, who sounded pleasantly surprised. "And just what might your demonic mother be able to do for you?"

Ranma chuckled awkwardly. "Um, well... I was wondering if I could come and visit you. I, uh... I kinda need some advice."

She heard her mother release a sigh before she said, "Oh, dear. You've taken after your mother, haven't you?"

"Er, yeah," came the lame reply.

The silence that followed made her worry about what her mother's response might be, until she finally heard, "...Alright. It will take me a few minutes to adjust my schedule before I can open up a portal to your location." There was a pause. "Are you sure about this?"

"I'm sure," she replied resolutely. "I mean, you're my mom, right?"

"I am, indeed," her mother replied in a soft tone.

They ended the call there, and Ranma began to wait for the portal to appear, wondering if she had made the right decision. Her future was looking very uncertain, and she wasn't sure where this new facet in her life would take her. She could only hope that things turned out well, all things considered.

When the familiar, heart-shaped portal finally appeared, she stared at it for a moment, having second thoughts. Then she shook her head to clear away her doubts, took a deep breath, and stepped through the portal with as much genuine optimism as she could manage.


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Unexpectedly, Ranma found the portal to be a bit of a letdown: one moment her entire field of vision had been filled with the fuchsia-colored portal, and the next she found herself someplace else without anything happening in between. She wasn't sure how she should feel about the aforementioned "someplace else," because she hadn't really known what to expect, but an office hadn't been anywhere close to what had come to mind.

For a person who supposedly ruled an entire (nether)world, the office wasn't much to look at. Well, it was certainly rather spacious, and of high quality (to her inexperienced eye), but it was rather spartan. Aside from a large desk, a carpet that stretched across most of the distance between the desk and the door (upon which she stood), a couple of chandeliers, and a pair of french doors that led to a balcony, there wasn't much else to speak of; there weren't any bookshelves, anything framed and hung up on a wall, or much of anything on the desktop. (She would later learn that her mother didn't much care for wasting money on things that would — in all likelihood — get destroyed at some point, especially the things of value that couldn't be replaced.)

She found her mother standing in front of her desk, dressed in the same kind of outfit as she had worn when they had first met. Her visage was schooled, and her stare a bit uncomfortable, but something like resignation seemed to seep into her being and give her a more relaxed image and approachable air. She wasn't sure what to make of that, but it made her feel a lot less worried when she began to make her way toward her.

She felt even better when her mother hugged her briefly and asked, "What seems to be the problem?"

"Well," Ranma began dryly, as she released her human disguise and became a near-twin of her mother, "aside from this? What am I supposed to do with my life, now? Even if I manage to keep this a secret, I'll still be stuck as a girl."

"You could just become a human man again," came Nyx's calm reply, with a note of amusement in her voice.

Ranma opened her mouth to say something, then shut it, before her brain could come up with some kind of response. "Wha...?"

Nyx chuckled at her reaction. "By using a process called transmigration, you can return to being human and male in no time. Mind you, you won't start out as strong as you are now, but that's not something that some time and effort couldn't remedy."

"Are you serious?" Ranma asked, with the beginnings of giddy amazement coloring her words. Upon receiving a nod in response, she quickly added, "No curse, too?"

"No curse," Nyx confirmed.

"Just like that?" Ranma asked, her once-burgeoning excitement being checked by disbelief.

Nyx cocked an eyebrow. "Of course. You're my child, and it's within my power to help you, so why wouldn't I?"

Had Ranma's excitement gotten the better of her, she would have jumped at the offer immediately, without question or thought. However, it occurred to her that her mother was backing up her claim about giving birth to her on the condition that she be human, and she still didn't know why she desired her to be human in the first place. Should she ask her about it, now that it was on her mind? If she did, would her mother give her an acceptable answer?

Her mother had been considerate and helpful, so far. Sure, she acted a bit odd and distant at times, for some reason, but she was friendly and interesting on the whole. Compared to her father, she actually felt comfortable with the idea of getting closer to her, despite being a demon (and a succubus on top of that). Perhaps it would be worth getting to know her better, before asking such a question? Depending on how that worked out, she might not even need to ask.

Besides which, there was a whole other world worth of stuff to explore, both figuratively and literally, and the traveling and training martial artist within her saw an opportunity to see new things and learn new stuff. For instance, even though she hadn't had the opportunity to truly take advantage of it yet... She could actually fly! And, while anything male was probably beyond her, she could also shapeshift. It'd be a waste to lose those abilities without really using them, and those were just the things that she was aware of. What else could she explore and experience, if only she had the nerve to find out?

She began to mull over the idea of remaining a succubus, at least for the time being. It wasn't the sort of thing that she would have ever imagined herself considering seriously in the past, but that had been before being presented with the prospect of choosing between death and making it back to Akane alive as a girl. She'd spent sixteen years of her life with her father, as a human male, so why not spare a few weeks, months, or even an entire year for her mother? Sure, she didn't necessarily _need_ to be a succubus during that time, but she felt that various things probably wouldn't work out so well otherwise.

"Is something the matter?" Nyx inquired, after her child had gone quiet and introspective, with no clear sign of coming out of it.

Ranma pursed her lips as she considered her mother and finalized her decision. "I was just wondering when I could do that transmigration thing."

"Whenever you're ready," Nyx answered, before she paused to consider where things might be going. "Why?"

"What if I'm not ready?" Ranma replied, as she stared into her mother's eyes with enough resolve to be mistaken for a challenge.

Her mother considered her for a time, to measure the nature of her words, before something about her appearance began to suggest that she was tired. It was too subtle for her to be sure, but it was there, whatever "it" was. She began to wonder if whatever inspired it would make itself more apparent given enough time.

"Are you sure?" Nyx asked softly.

Ranma nodded her head firmly. "You're my mom. If you can accept me like this, I'd like to spend some time with you and see what it's like."

Nyx nodded her head almost imperceptibly. "Very well, then."

She drew an arm over Ranma's shoulders, who followed her direction when she began to lead her toward the balcony. The french doors opened on their own several steps ahead of them, and before she knew it she was overlooking a vast city that lit up the sky, as if to make up for the fact that there weren't any stars in said sky. Instead, there was what appeared to be a partially-lit gas giant, its smoky bands of white and blue such an awe-inspiring sight that she had a difficult time turning her eyes away from it.

Her mother swept her hand across the horizon and said, "All this and beyond is Asphodel, a city that is devoted to catering to the needs of those seeking various forms of entertainment and pleasure."

As she would later find out, Asphodel covered half of Tartarus' surface, a moon that was three-fourths the size of the planet Earth. Between the size of the gas giant that the moon was tidally locked with, and the city being located on the side that always faced said planet, the city experienced very long nights (as it had been intentioned). Well, it was more like an amusement park than a city, because almost all of the temporary and semi-permanent residences were located on the other side of the planet, where all of the entry portals, parking garages and transportation hubs were.

For a place made specifically for the night life of demons, "entertainment and pleasure" sounded rather ominous — and, indeed, that was very much the case. However, it wasn't all vice, if one didn't think that combat training should be labeled as such. Considering what demons were likely to do with their newly-gained skills, whether it was to slake their bloodlust or not, opinions were likely to vary. (Also, Happosai was going to become one of the combat instructors at some point in the future, so... Yeah.)

At the moment, however, she didn't fully comprehend just what kind of sight she was seeing, though her imagination was more than active enough to make it an unsettling one. And that was before she had spotted a few demons that were either big or close enough for her to see, which had only added more fuel for her imagination to work with.

It suddenly occurred to her that her father was probably a saint, when compared with her mother, despite her personal relationship with the latter being better. However, it also occurred to her that her mother may be trying to push her away, because she wanted her to return to being a human on Earth rather than being with her in the midst of a den of demons (who were likely doing all manner of things that demons were infamous for ever having done).

With that in mind, she took a deep, calming breath, and mostly succeeded in sounding casual as she asked, "So, this is all yours, huh?"

"It is," Nyx answered simply. "Though not everything that this place has to offer is physically present."

Ranma looked up at her mother questioningly. "What do you mean?"

Nyx's gaze followed her free hand as she placed it upon the balustrade. "This building, for instance, houses the company that manages human resources."

"...Manages?" Ranma couldn't help asking, even though she had a bad feeling about how demons would "manage" humans as a resource.

Nyx nodded her head faintly. "Many demons rely on humans for their survival, in some form or another, but hardly all. Those that don't have a tendency of wiping out entire human populations, and some go so far as to destroy the world that they live on." She looked askance, into her child's eyes. "It's not what one would call a wise use of resources, so we find, secure and manage worlds that are inhabited by humans, so that they may be enjoyed for as long as possible."

Ranma could do no more than gape at that. Her mother had basically described the human race as being nothing more than cattle on a farm, so that they could be milked until they could be milked no more. It wasn't just the idea that was horrifying, but that her own world might also be in the hands of demons. Considering how many humans were now living on Earth, would the demons plan to reap from it soon? And if that turned out to be the case, what would she be able to do about it?

"Having second thoughts?" Her mother casually inquired.

Ranma shook her head, both as a reply and as a means to get her head back into the game. As bad as it sounded for humans to be managed by demons, it could also be reasoned that said demons made sure that the humans in question wouldn't all be killed off as soon as they were discovered. While that didn't excuse what they were doing, it was enough of an excuse to stick by her mother, who seemed intent on convincing her to go back to living as a human.

But why? She knew what her father had to gain from keeping her close, so he could try to dictate what kind of future he wanted her to have (and by extension, his own place in it), but what could her mother gain by trying to keep her at a distance? Was it because she cared about her, and was doing it to protect her? Or, was there another reason for her behavior? Between those questions and her mother's otherwise friendly behavior, it left her feeling rather confused.

Suddenly, she felt a yawn coming on, and she was gripped by it before she could try to mitigate how tired it would make her look. Once it had run its course, she found it harder to ignore her fatigue, even though she wanted to hold off on getting some sleep so she could converse with her mother further.

Unfortunately, after seeing the kind of state that she was in, her mother turned her around and began to lead her back into the office in the same manner as she had out. "It would seem that whatever made you decide to become a succubus has taken its toll on you, so let's get you into bed." Before she could form a verbal protest, her mother added, "We can continue this after you've had some rest. This will also allow me to open up more time for you in my schedule."

Nyx stopped after passing her desk, then looked down at her child with a pleasant smile on her face. "How does that sound?"

Ranma looked down in defeat and mumbled, "Fine, I guess..."

"Good," Nyx replied, before she summoned a futon and matching quilt into existence, which appeared behind her desk.

Normally, she would have produced something much better to sleep in, but the type and location were very deliberate because she needed to be discreet. If word got around that she had more offspring, the situation with her child could become quite complicated.

She had taken enough of a risk with the balcony, in her attempt to discourage her son-turned-daughter from remaining as she was. It had not been a course of action that she would have ever thought necessary, hence the risk in light of her unpreparedness.

Having her child sleep behind her desk wasn't exactly the best place to put her, but it was the most convenient. Not only would it allow her to get right back to convincing her child into rejoining humankind, but it would also allow her to keep an eye on her — just in case. While using force was certainly an option, she just didn't have the heart to do it to one of her children, which is why she went on to help her child into bed and got her tucked in instead.

"Good night, mom," Ranma said, before she was overtaken by yet another yawn.

Said mom bit her bottom lip and managed to resist giving her child a kiss on the forehead. "Good night."

She cast a spell to put her child to sleep, even though it hadn't been needed. She'd done it so she could have some time to herself, to think and plan. It would have been too awkward for her to wait on her child to fall asleep, because of the nature of her thoughts and plans, and she didn't want that to be noticed.

Once she was seated at her desk, she leaned over it and buried her face in her hands as she released a long, drawn-out sigh. Not for the first time did she wonder why this situation had to be so difficult, even though she was intimately — painfully — aware of the answers to that very question. She'd love nothing more than to smother her child with motherly love, whether they were a succubus or a human man, but...

She eventually pulled herself together and focused on what needed to be done. First, she woke up her computer from sleep mode, which caused a section of her desktop to change from a wooden surface to a display of an advanced operating system's user interface. Several holographic screens appeared above the desktop at the same time, all empty save the one that she began using to adjust her schedule once again, only this time she focused on clearing her appointments for that evening.

While she had been doing that, her mind had also been on her child, and how she might convince her to become a human again, to live out her days as such without getting involved with other demons or visiting netherworlds that were full of them. The problem was that she didn't know why her child was being stubborn, even though she had been pretty sure that her child had preferred being both human and male.

Eventually, an idea began to take shape, which led her to opening a file in one of the holographic screens. At the top of the document that was now being displayed on it, in large, bold print, was the title: "Human Reservation #6907." Below that, on the left, was a column filled with data. On the right of that was an image of a rotating planet, one that would have looked very familiar to her child had she seen it.

"Hmmmm..." She hummed thoughtfully, as the idea crystallized.

* * *

When Ranma awoke, she didn't immediately show any outward sign of it, aside from the brief time when she had first opened her eyes and realized where she was, and why. Instead of getting up, she had opted to lie right where she was, so she could think about everything that had happened to her in the past few days.

Well, she didn't really need to think about Herb, so it didn't take long before her thoughts turned to her mother, and what had happened before she had gone to sleep. Looking back on it, it was all rather unbelievable: not so much because of her decision and stubbornness to stick with it, but what all Asphodel was likely for, how human worlds were an extension of what it had to offer, and the fact that her mother was at the heart of it all.

It was a bit strange, but she found herself trying to rationalize why she wasn't doing anything wrong by associating with demons. After all, demons certainly didn't have a monopoly on the kinds of things that they were known to do. Also, if her mother was any indication, then at least some of them were friendly and capable of love. (At least, she'd like to think that what her mother felt toward her was exactly that.)

If there was one thing that she was sure about, when all was said and done, it was her desire to get closer to her mother. Not that long ago she hadn't understood how a mother could fit into the equation of her life, but that was beginning to change. Between how her mother usually treated her, and how the idea of getting closer to her father made her ill, she was beginning to see the appeal. The fact that her mother was a demon had quickly become a non-issue, especially in light of the fact that said demon had been ready and willing to restore her humanity and rid her of her curse.

However, that willingness presented her with a quandary, one that she wished to solve. Even though she would really appreciate being human and male again, she was all but certain that there was more than just her mother's kindness behind the offer. It could just be that her mother was doing it for her sake, by trying to push her away, but increasing the distance that she now desired to shorten was unacceptable, even after taking into consideration everything else that she knew about the situation.

She may end up biting off more than she could chew in her endeavor, but it certainly wouldn't be the first time if that turned out to be the case. Really, as long as she was assured a return to both humanity and manhood, she didn't really see a problem with being a succubus for a little while. Well, aside from what might await her back at home, while pretending that she was still stuck as a girl.

"How long do you plan on lying there?" Her mother suddenly asked, with a note of amusement in her voice.

She opened her eyes and sat up before turning to face her mother, who was sitting at her desk but had her office chair facing away from it. After a good stretch and a yawn, she asked, "How did you know that I was awake?"

Nyx smiled slightly and said, "The creation and control of dreams is just one of our many talents, so it's important to know whether someone's asleep or not, lest we get caught doing something suspicious."

An awkward silence passed between mother and child, due to the subject matter that had been brought up, before the former sighed and asked, "Are you still intent on being a succubus?"

Ranma nodded her head resolutely. "It'll be okay if it's only for a little while, right?"

Nyx didn't say anything for a moment, as she regarded her child with a measured expression. "Perhaps. It might even be convenient."

"What do you mean?" Ranma asked, confused.

Instead of giving an answer, Nyx replied with another question. "If your world were in danger, and you had the power to protect it, would you?"

Ranma thought that was a strange question to ask, because the answer to it was obvious. "Of course I would."

"Well," Nyx said casually, "it just so happens that your world is in danger."

"What!?" Ranma exclaimed, jumping to her feet in an instant.

Nyx made a placating gesture with her hand. "Calm down. It's not in _imminent_ danger, but I can only slow down the process for so long."

"What do you mean?" Ranma asked, her brow furrowed in puzzlement, before her eyes widened in realization. "Hold on! You mean that human resources stuff!?"

"That's right," Nyx replied, with a nod of her head, before she began to explain. "Your planet, Earth, was submitted for re-evaluation a few years ago. This often means that circumstances have necessitated a change in the plan that was already established for the human reservation, or that some other action needs to be taken in order to maintain the integrity of the original one."

Since her child seemed to be at a loss for words, she decided to continue. "Normally, when a human reservation is being re-evaluated, I stay out of the process. I do, however, have the power to reject whatever solution the board wants to carry out, or hold it for review. I chose to do the latter in this case, because I don't have a good argument for rejection, and my relationship with the board is such that doing so would have brought me a lot of unwanted attention."

She slouched in her chair a bit and sighed. "However, after sitting on it for so long, I've been attracting the kind of attention that I've been wanting to avoid. With all of the potential clients that are interested in a world with over six-billion humans, I've been under a lot of pressure to release the human reservation from limbo, even if it's just to reject the current plans for it."

After digesting all of that, Ranma was able to piece things together, and in a soft, quiet voice she asked, "It's 'cause of me, isn't it?"

"_For_ you," Nyx both corrected and admitted, and smiled wanly. "I didn't forget where you were, but I couldn't outright reject the proposed solution without drawing a lot of scrutiny to your world, so..."

"So she was protecting me even before I knew about her," Ranma thought to herself, who felt a warm and fuzzy feeling inside.

That feeling wasn't to last, however, as she considered the rest of her mother's words, which made her frown. "You've mentioned a solution, but... What's the problem?"

Nyx turned her chair sideways so she could have access to the display on her desktop, and prepared to press the command that she had prepared earlier, but not before she stared her child in the eye and said, "The reason why I asked if you would be willing to save your world, if you had the power to do so, is because I was hoping that you could take care of _this_."

She activated the command upon saying her final word, and in response a very large holographic screen appeared well above the desk. Ranma looked up at the image that was being displayed on it, and she was absolutely shocked by the familiar sight being shown to her, which was being presented to her as being the problem.

It was none other than the Sailor Senshi.


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Ranma gaped in disbelief before she looked at her mother and pointed at the image on the screen. "You want _me_ to take care of _them_?"

How could her mother even suggest such a thing? The Sailor Senshi were the good guys! She was well aware that her mother could hardly be placed on the side of good, and she could also see how the Sailor Senshi might be bad for her mother's business, but why in the world would her mother think that _she_ would be willing to go against the defenders of her own home world?

Nyx turned her chair around, so she was facing her child once again, and calmly said, "It's not necessary, but likely unavoidable."

Confused, Ranma dropped her arm and asked, "What do you mean?"

"Look at the crystal being shown in the corner," Nyx directed, where said crystal was being displayed in a smaller window. "Do you recognize it?"

While Ranma didn't recognize the Ginzuishou by sight, she'd heard enough about it to nod her head in confirmation. After all, any notable "crystal" associated with the Sailor Senshi was — in all likelihood — going to be the Ginzuishou. Her knowledge wasn't just based on secondhand accounts, as a lot of people had been looking for the Ginzuishou more than once over the past few years, but she had witnessed many a person's interest in it herself, while she had still been on her training journey with her father. Said people had been acting rather weird and creepy at the time, so it wasn't something so easy for her to forget; especially since her father had taken an interest in it, and had insisted on hunting it down.

She followed her nod up with, "It's the Ginzuishou, right?"

"That's right," Nyx stated, as she folded her hands in her lap. "What you see there is the real problem, both in the short and long term."

Ranma had heard the rumors regarding the Ginzuishou's power, as well as its reputed applications, so she felt compelled to ask, "How is that possible?"

Nyx leaned back in her chair and prepared for a lengthy explanation. "The Ginzuishou is a powerful tool, with nearly limitless potential. Simply put: it would take a comparable force or greater to overcome it. It's unlikely that Serenity's daughter will be willing to let go of it, and I'm afraid that human casualties will be quite significant if she resists, because she _will_ lose to my forces."

Ranma wasn't sure if her mother was stating a fact or simply being confident, but she figured that it would be a good idea to take her seriously nonetheless. Since it seemed her mother was going to continue, she decided to hear her out before she made any kind of response or judgement: not only due to the seriousness of the situation, but because her mother might be up to something again.

"That's the immediate problem," Nyx stated simply. "I won't bore you with the details of how that could hurt the business prospects of that particular reservation, save to say that the loss will likely be significant. However, I can assure you that an even worse fate could befall your world if I were to intervene, because both enemies and opportunists alike will try to hold it over my head if they think it's of any value to me, if they don't try to destroy it outright. Whether their estimations turn out to be true or not, I think it's safe to say that the fate of your world matters to _you_, correct?"

Ranma could only nod her head in reply.

"That's why it would be better if you took care of the Ginzuishou yourself, instead of allowing my company to do it," Nyx reasoned. "There won't be any sympathy to mitigate whatever course of action it decides to take, nor would the financial consequence of their efforts have any real affect on the bottom line. Basically, my company isn't in any kind of position to favor a solution that isn't quick, cheap and convenient."

Ranma stared down at the floor intently, with her brow furrowed in thought, as she considered her mother's words. As far as she could tell, it sounded like her mother wasn't in a position to help, and could — in fact — make things worse if she intervened. However, if she were to take care of the matter herself, she might be able to prevent a lot of death and destruction.

The problem with that, of course, was the fact that she would be disarming the Sailor Senshi of their strongest weapon against evildoers. Would the short-term solution be worth the long-term price? She wasn't sure, but it did remind her of something else, and she figured that she might have a better idea of what to do under such complicated circumstances once she knew more about the situation.

After returning her gaze to her mother, she deliberately asked, "You mentioned something about a long-term problem, right?"

Nyx gave a slight nod of her head in reply. "That, I did. You see, to achieve what the Ginzuishou can do, it exacts a price in return: chaos is generated with every use. The Ginzuishou is used to achieve a certain outcome, so — naturally — chaos will act to make a mess of things. Using the Ginzuishou to fight off the resulting chaos, as the daughter of Serenity has been doing, has effectively expidited the death spiral that is inherent with its utilization."

"It creates a death spiral?" Ranma questioned in disbelief.

"Indeed," Nyx replied solemnly. "It's not a matter of if, but a matter of when. It could happen in the next few years, or even after hundreds or thousands of years, but the Ginzuishou and chaos will eventually cancel each other out. If that were to happen anywhere near your solar system, well..."

Ranma blinked her eyes at that, and studied her mother's face, but it appeared that she was serious about what she was suggesting: that whoever possessed the Ginzuishou wouldn't need to be on or near the Earth for it to be destroyed. If what her mother had said was true, then it would definitely be a good idea to destroy the Ginzuishou before it and chaos performed their final act.

Could she trust her mother, though? All things considered, from personal experience, she didn't really have a strong enough reason _not_ to. However, who was to say that she wasn't being tricked? She might be her mother, but she was still a demon, and had recognized that she wasn't as forthcoming about things as she'd like at times.

No matter what she decided, whether it was to destroy the Ginzuishou or not, she felt that she wouldn't escape a heavy burden. The question was: would it be one of responsibility, or one of consequence?

Her thoughts were interrupted when her mother said, "Also, while you may have thought of this already, there's one more thing to keep in mind, which may be of some concern to you."

"What's that?" She asked, with some apprehension, already having some idea of what her mother might be alluding to.

Nyx looked her child straight in the eye, now that she had reached the pivotal moment of her plan, and said, "The Sailor Senshi's effectiveness as guardians will be greatly reduced with the loss of the Ginzuishou, and they will lose it whether you're the one responsible for it or not. My company will then proceed to operate normally, which means that it will only be a matter of time before some demon or another is allowed to make use of the reservation. What will you do when that day comes?"

Ranma wasn't sure what to say. She felt that she should defend her world regardless of the circumstances, but what could she offer when it was trumped by what the Sailor Senshi could do many times over? As a human, however much of an exceptional one she might have been, she'd barely managed to escape death from the likes of Herb, whom she may have only been able to defeat had she been able to use his own power against him. That was hardly an ideal way to defend one's world, especially if any future threat came in great numbers.

She knew — without a doubt — that she was stronger as a succubus, which also came with plenty of innate abilities (which she seemed to have a natural awareness of, and access to) that would make her a more effective fighter. Exactly how she measured up to the Sailor Senshi, she wasn't sure, but the point was that she would make a better defender as a succubus. The problem with that, of course, was that she would have to remain a succubus if she were — at all — serious about protecting her world.

Could she do that? Originally, she'd had no intention of staying a succubus for any significant length of time, but an indefinite amount would almost certainly be significant, so long as she planned to act as a defender of her world. And that wasn't even getting into the issues that would arise in her life, on the very world that she hoped to protect (especially in regard to a certain someone that she had yet to admit her feelings to).

The answer seemed obvious, but that didn't make it any easier to accept. Either she could sacrifice her humanity and manhood to do the right thing, what she had been raised to do as a martial artist, or she could be selfish and hope that things turned out well without her help.

Nyx didn't like seeing her child so conflicted, even though that was exactly what her plan had called for, so she stood up from her chair and said, "You don't have to decide anything right now." She stepped up to her child and placed a hand on her shoulder. "However, I'm afraid that my ability to keep your world off of the playing table is nearly at an end, so try not to take too long to make up your mind."

Ranma was silent for a moment, before she gazed up at her mother with searching eyes and asked, "Does it really have to be this way?"

"No," Nyx replied softly, with a sad smile, "but the alternative would be far, far worse. Not only would any action — on my part — to protect your world expose it to even more potential threats, I've made far too many alliances, agreements, commitments and other obligations to take such an action without causing serious consequences. After all, I'm a well-known overlord, with a very successful and popular netherworld, and there are far too many demons who will be looking for whatever advantage that they can find to take me out of the picture. However, as powerful as I am, I can't hope to sustain everything by myself, which is why I can't risk undermining what I've put together to prevent effective attacks that are made against me and my netherworld. As one means toward that end, my position must be neutral." She looked deeply into her child's eyes before she added, "Do you understand?"

Ranma nodded her head silently. Apparently her mother had her own world to protect, and she wasn't important enough to risk sacrificing it. She was disappointed by that, but not particularly upset. After all, unlike her father, her mother had a lot more than just herself to think about, and the circumstances sounded rather complicated. Besides, if her mother were to be believed, then doing no more than she had already done would be the safest thing to do.

Since there didn't seem to be anything else to talk about, and Ranma had suddenly recalled the situation that she had left on Earth, it wasn't long before Nyx opened up a portal to send her child (once more assuming a human guise) back. They had hugged briefly before parting, but it had been a subdued affair.

Nyx continued to stare through the space where the portal had been only seconds before, wondering if she was doing the right thing. She just wanted her child to live a normal (relatively speaking) life as a human, rather than being exposed to the dangers that surrounded both her and the life of a demon. Toward that end, she hadn't mentioned that her child had the option to become a male demon via transmigration, since she was sure that her child would be more opposed to being a female one. It seemed like the best way to discourage her child from wanting to stay a demon for any length of time, without doing anything that she would surely be hated for.

If things worked out like she hoped, she would be able to create a good yet (unfortunately) distant relationship with her child, after she managed to get a new guardian to protect her home world. However, that outcome was far from guaranteed, because her position didn't give her many options to accomplish such a feat, at least as far as managing it without being noticed.

With a sigh, she returned to her desk and sank into her chair, not in a mood to do any work yet feeling the need to distract herself with something. Idly, she wondered if she could get away with dropping everything and performing a disappearing act, so she could live with Ranma in relative peace. Was there any chance of that working out, or would it be doomed from the start?

* * *

Since Ranma had been holding the money for the train ride, and Mousse and Ryoga had been awake for a few hours already, they were understandably displeased with her when she finally turned up. When asked about her absence, she had used her stuck-as-a-girl status as an excuse to go off on her own, in order to think about her situation; where, in the process, she had lost track of the time. It was close enough to the truth, and the two boys seemed to accept it, so they soon left for the train station without further ado.

The train ride back to Tokyo would prove to be quite uneventful, with herself lost in thought and her companions deciding that it would be best to not bother her with awkward conversation or empty condolences. The silence between them continued after they arrived in Nerima, though it was pretty much unavoidable once Ryoga and Mousse had been splashed by cold water in a freak accident involving a garden hose.

Being that it was Winter, and the two cursed boys were wet while in bodies that weren't exactly impervious to the cold, she prioritized getting them to a place where they could warm up. Since the Tendo's house was closer to their current location than the sentō and Nekohanten, and that was where she and Ryoga had been going anyway, having Mousse join them only seemed natural.

They came upon the rear entrance of the house first, where people were supposed to issue their challenges to the dojo, and she directed the other two to head for the furoba from there while she continued on. After all, not only would it be unnecessary for her to join them, but if Akane was worried about her (which she hoped to be the case) then it would be a better idea to make a proper entrance where she would be expected to arrive.

Which is why it warmed her heart when she rounded the next corner and saw Akane standing before the open gate, as if she were waiting for someone. Even if she weren't, she was a damn sight better than the naked trees set against the dreary, grey sky above. Despite the cold weather, she was dressed warmly enough without looking shapeless, in a sweater, skirt and leggings, with a scarf being her sole accessory.

Since Akane had — indeed — been hoping to see a certain someone, she was spotted right away. Her fiancée turned to face her as she approached, and waited patiently for her as she traversed the distance between them. When she finally stood before her, she wasn't sure what to say: she had a lot of things on her mind, which made it difficult for her to think of something casual, mundane or innocuous.

However, such concerns were completely forgotten when Akane stepped up to her, slipped her arms around her middle, and squeezed. She never would have imagined such a thing being possible, so it took her a few seconds to realize that she was being embraced by the girl she cared about. It was hard to believe that what she had once considered a fantasy, which she had used to overcome Herb, had become reality. The thought that her fiancée had been worried about her, to this extent, made her eyes sting with unshed tears.

After Akane pulled away, she said, "I saw what happened to the mountain on the news..." When she noticed Ranma's moist eyes, she became concerned and asked, "Is something wrong?"

Ranma shook her head in reply, even though — in reality — she was very unsure. It seemed so typical that she would experience a new level of affection from Akane at the same time as she had to seriously consider sacrificing both her humanity and manhood. Considering how long it had taken Akane to willingly embrace her in the manner that she had, the notion that her pervert-hating fiancée would go any further than that with another girl seemed ludicrous, impossible. Either way, whether she was happy about her fiancée's feelings in the here and now, or sad about their future prospects as a couple, her tears had yet to dry up.

"Are you sure?" Akane asked, as she regarded her fiancé with an odd look, not knowing what to make of — or how to respond to — said fiancé's behavior.

Ranma replied with a modest nod of her head. "Yeah..."

If not for Kasumi's timely appearance, an awkward silence would have likely befallen them. Instead, they turned to look toward the front door when they heard it slide open, and saw the eldest Tendo's face light up with pleasant surprise from where she stood in the genkan.

"There you are," Kasumi said cheerfully, before she motioned for them to enter the house. "Come inside and warm yourselves up."

Ranma and Akane were more than happy to oblige her, and it wasn't long before they were done taking off their shoes in the genkan and entering the house proper. By that point Kasumi had left them to their own devices, but not before telling them that dinner would soon be ready.

It was then, as they were walking toward the family room, that Akane had the presence of mind to ask, "Where's Ryoga and Mousse? Are they alright?"

"They're fine," Ranma assured her. "They got wet on the way here, so I thought it'd be better if they went straight into the furo."

Before Akane could ask an even more pertinent question about Ranma's trip, she was interrupted by a flying kettle upon entering the family room, courtesy of Ranma's father. Since it hadn't been Genma's intent to hit his child with it, she watched — unconcernedly — as Ranma caught it by the handle with ease, and kept the hot water within from sloshing out of the spout or past the lid.

"Do you mind?" Ranma groused, in response to her father's act.

She took the opportunity to look around, and noted that Soun and Nabiki were seated at the kotatsu with her father. Considering how the table was already set for dinner, and recalling Kasumi's parting words, she didn't need to guess the reason for why they were all gathered there.

When his child didn't immediately make use of the hot water that he had so generously provided, Genma frowned. "Well?"

Ranma shrugged her shoulders and casually said, "Don't need it."

Even though she'd already had everyone's attention, her response inspired even greater scrutiny. While that was mostly restricted to being stared at, her father wasn't going to be content until he considered the matter settled, even if it required getting physical.

As such, he stood up from the table and sternly demanded, "What do you mean, you don't need it?"

"There were... complications," Ranma carefully replied, which was an understatement if she had ever heard one.

"What kind of complications?" Soun inquired worriedly.

Before Ranma could think of an explanation, she heard Kasumi approaching from behind. Since she and Akane were blocking the entrance that she would use to deliver their meal, she turned around and accepted the tray of food from her, so she'd have an excuse to sit at the table and put off further discussion until later. By then, she hoped to have a good excuse, especially since she hadn't yet decided on whether she would return to being a human man or not.

Of course, when she sat down at the table and set the tray down on it, her father plopped down beside her to pursue the issue instead of taking the hint. "Well? What complications?"

Knowing that she wouldn't catch any peace otherwise, Ranma manifested her tail and maneuvered it so she could drain her father's energy from his foot, which he failed to notice because of the callous that she had aimed for.

"Eat first, talk later," she said dismissively, not bothering to look at him.

Her father was about to argue, but the sudden onset of fatigue made him confused, which required him to reassess his priorities. Between that and Kasumi's return with the rest of the meal, he ended up mumbling something that might have been agreement as he changed his focus to the food that he hoped to re-energize himself with.

Having accomplished her goal, she retracted her tail and looked around to make sure that no one had seen it. While Soun and Akane were looking at her with concern, even if for different reasons, she was pretty sure that they hadn't seen anything. Kasumi probably would have made some kind of innocuous-sounding observation about it, had she seen it while walking over to her place at the table, so she was reasonably sure that she hadn't.

Nabiki, on the other hand, had been staring at her with a strange expression on her face until their eyes had met, at which point she had — in an uncharacteristic move — ducked her head and looked away. She wasn't sure what to make of that, since she was pretty sure that Nabiki wouldn't have been able to see her tail from the other side of the table, mostly because of said furnishing.

Besides, had Nabiki seen her tail, she was pretty sure that she would have given some sign that she was going to take advantage of her later because of it. If not for the fact that she could make her tail disappear from sight, she probably would have tried to draw attention to it in order to make her go through the trouble of hiding it from everyone else.

She wasn't sure what was going on, but Nabiki had been acting odd around her ever since her mother had given her "interesting" dreams. While that had certainly made a positive impact on her wallet, and her peace of mind in general, her curiosity was beginning to get the better of her.

Why had Nabiki been looking at her like that, at that particular time? Had she seen something strange, even if not her tail? Perhaps it was time to put one of her new abilities to use, to see if she could learn anything by looking at someone's dreams. Depending on what she chose to do with her life in the future, she might need the practice anyway.

For the time being, however, she was content to eat her meal in peace, even if her mind was far from peaceful at that moment.

* * *

Furo: a deep tub used for soaking, not washing.

Furoba: a room for washing and soaking.

Genkan: an area — often with a recessed floor — within the entrance of a home, where one removes their shoes to avoid dirtying or damaging floors.

Ginzuishou: silver crystal.

Kotatsu: a low table with a heater built in underneath it; a futon or thick blanket can be added to it or removed depending on one's needs.

Sentō: a bathhouse.


End file.
